Archive for the ‘Country Music Hall of Fame’ Category

I hope all of you had a great Memorial Day weekend. I know I did. We went to west Tennessee, and while we were heading through Nashville, we stopped at the Country Music Hall of Fame. This photo was taken in the lobby – which is huge, and includes a restaurant and 5,000 sq. ft. gift shop. Where I just couldn’t resist buying a book called The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Looks like I’ve got a lot of reading to do!

There is a huge Hank Williams Sr. exhibit at the museum right now. I suppose most of what I know about Hank Sr. I learned from old tapes (video and audio), and old black and white photos. I hadn’t realized that he dressed as colorful as (or even more so) than Porter Wagoner. A lot of Hanks clothes were on display, as well as some that Hank Jr. wore when he was on stage with is dad, at a very, very young age. They were so cute. In addition to Hank Sr.’s wardrobe, there were boots, guitars, and even the saddle from one of his horses; and of course, a lot of information about his family. It was really interesting exhibit.

The museum, of course, goes from the earliest days of country music, right up to the present. The picture of Tim McGraw at the left covered a rather large wall toward the end of the museum tour. And that was where you found photos and information about Kenny Chesney, Mark Wills, and some of the other “more recent” country stars. To read everything, listen to all the songs, and watch the videos of past country television shows – you could spend days in the museum. I had a great time!

A short distance away, in front of the Wax Museum near Opryland Hotel, there is a large concrete area where entertainers put their hand prints and footprints in the cement. So with Porter, when we made the journey from the Hall of Fame Museum to the Wax Muxeum – we got to go from suits to boots.

And how interesting is this – Porter’s boots, with their little pointed toes and narrow heels, look like the might have been rather uncomfortable. And here’s George Strait – with his boots, obviously very practical for riding and roping (something we all know George does quite a bit of). I liked the fact that it wasn’t roped off – you could actually put your feet in their boot prints, and get down and see how your hands measured up next to theirs. There is also a great gift shop at the museum. The then, as you probably guessed, gift shops are not in short supply in Nashville.

And, here’s one of my all-time favorites, Johnny Cash. This was the photograph on the wall with all the gold records, and when you opened the photo – it played one Johnny’s songs, and had a little information about him behind the photo. The walls of gold records were on two floors or the museum – some had doors that opened and you could hear music; others just displayed the gold records — all of them were great to see.

That’s all for today. I loved getting to go away for a few days, but it’s nice to be home. If you guys have anything in particular you’d like to know about – let me know. I’ll thumb through my Encyclopedia of Country Music and see what I can find out for you.